Deep Breaths
by InnocentStorm
Summary: It wasn't everyday that Prussia gets mail. But when the letter is written by the lawyer of an old friend that used to be Germany and his escort- he's sent reeling. Suddenly the German brothers are taking care of their god-daughter! (Warning: OCs)
1. Prolouge

Pale blue fire… A bright, almost unattainable color was staring out at nothing as the scenery rushes past. She closed her eyes and rested her head against the clear glass pane. Her head bounced slightly on it as the silver smart-car sped down the road, but she didn't care. The light headache that came with the constant contact with the cool glass was a welcome distraction from the healing ache in her heart. She missed her family so much… If only they hadn't gone out…

The man in the passenger seat glances back at the girl. He opens his mouth to say something to her, but quickly shuts it. A sigh comes from his mouth before he trains his red eyes back on the road. Beside him, his younger brother had a frown etched into his stony face as he drove. The brothers knew the same pain that their god-daughter did. They lost a loyal and irreplaceable friend to some idiot drunk that thought it was all in good fun when he took to driving over countless people as a game.

They turned into a tree-lined private drive. At the end of the long driveway stood a beautiful old house; one with a lovely midnight blue color and white wrap-around porch. A moving van sat in the drive as movers carried the last of the luggage and furniture inside. The girl in the back seat looked up. Here they were… Their new home…

"Looks like they are almost done," commented the driver, his German accent lacing his words.

"Yeah… Thank you…" she said softly, "You know… For not making me move away to Germany…"

The two brothers looked back at her in surprise. She should have known that they wouldn't make her relocate her whole life just because her father's will said that she was to be taken in by her god-fathers who lived in Germany.

"Don't thank us, Willow! We're awesome enough to know you still have a life here!" the man in the passenger seat told her. She only smiled a tiny bit, as she wasn't totally at ease with her new caretakers. It was awkward for her to be taken in by people she had only heard stories about. But with all the stories she has heard, she knew it wouldn't take too long. For that, both parties were thankful. "Now let's go!"

He climbed out of the car, followed by his brother and their charge. Together, they approached the building that they will soon call home. The younger of the men went to pay the movers for their hard work as his older brother and Willow explored the house.

There were a lot of new experiences waiting to happen in this house; learning how to take care of a teenage girl for one. But how different could it be from running a country- something both of the brothers had plenty of experience in. Nonetheless, this house will stand witness to all that can happen when two personifications of countries try to raise their old friend's daughter. Let it be known a lot can happen. So take some deep breaths and step on in.


	2. Chapter 1

**~Willow~**

The sound of tape being pulled from a box broke the tense silence of the room. Willow pushed back the cardboard flaps that blocked the contents from view. Gently, she pulled out a soft leather jacket that was worn with age. Tears pricked at her eyes as she held it close, burying her nose into the familiar clothing and taking in the scent of her father. This was all she had of him now, other than memories that are already fading as the time goes by. She set the jacket back into the box, refolded, after a few moments of hesitation. The box was closed up and put into the back of her closet on top of two more boxes belonging to her deceased mother and brother. If one was to look behind all the clothes and boxes, they would find the closet wall to be covered with pictures and news articles pasted to the sad little wall.

Willow moved away from the closet before crawling onto the white sheets of her bed. Lying back, she closed her eyes and thought of better days. Days where she played pirate with Jo, her seven year old brother; Halloween costumes from the past and cheap plastic cutlasses being poked at each other. She could remember walking into the house covered in mud, her mother's horrified face, her dad's laughter as they trailed the grime onto the pristine floor.

A loud knock on the door made her sit up startled. She wills the growing headache to the back of her mind as she goes to open the door. As soon as the door opens, the older Beilschmidt bursts into the room.

"Come on, frau! We're going somewhere!" he grins. Before I knew what was happening, he had me by the arm and was dragging me to who knows where.

"I… I…" she wanted to say something witty like she would with her family, but decided against it as it would be rude. Willow simply allowed him to drag her out. As soon as they got into the beat-up pickup that resided in the paved road, Gilbert rushed off to who knows where.

Eventually, the two pulled up to a small shop. Vines and plants overtook most of the tiny square that the building sat happily in. The wooden sign that hung above the open window, which had variously colored posters haphazardly taped around it, read 'Stone River Ice Cream'. Gilbert rushed to the open window before handing the older lady something. She gave him two cones and said a polite goodbye. Looking to him as he waltzed back to her, Willow gave him a quizzical stare. At that, a large grin grew on his face.

"Here, Will. You need a pick me up," he handed an ice cream to her, causing her to smile back and nod. Maybe he wasn't as bad as he acted. Then she could suddenly feel a cold glob of the cold treat running down her cheek. Okay, she takes it back.

Two men stood behind Ludwig, peering from their places to look at the two that just walked in. One was short, with black hair and dark brown- almost completely black- eyes while the other was only a few inches shorter than Ludwig with auburn hair and friendly hazel eyes. Both of them were wearing casual clothing, but still looked fairly business like.

"Aww! Is this the ragazza you're taking in, Ger- I mean Ludwig?" the brunette asked excitedly. He was jumping up and down, a stray curl bouncing with him. Willow didn't think that a grown man, let alone one of the stern Ludwig's friends, could be so bubbly. Then again, he did have Gilbert as a brother.

"Ja. Feliciano, Kiku, this is Willow. Willow, these are my close friends, Honda Kiku-" the shorter man bowed respectfully. "And Feliciano Vargas." The brunette smiled widely and came over, pulling the startled girl into a hug. She let out a squeak at the random stranger hugging her. Don't get her wrong, she's a cuddly person but it was unexpected. Even the Beilschmidts haven't given the poor girl a hug since the funerals… No matter how much she looked like she needed one.

"Feli, what am I? Chop liver? Give the awesome me a hug!" Gilbert called, with a fake pout. Feliciano let me go after a few more seconds and gave Gilbert a hug too. I edged away and watched them with the other two.

"Is that normal, Ludwig..?" she asked the sterner god-father. He nodded, still watching the exchange between his brother and friend as they started to talk rapid-fire. For some reason, the back of her mind was screaming about how familiar this was. Willow shrugged it off for now. There's plenty of time for thinking about it later.

Moving away, I started to put away the groceries we stopped to get after the Stone River place in their respective places. Might as well do something productive while they talk, she thought. Kiku noticed and walked over. "Do you want some assistance with that, Willow-chan?"

"No, thanks, Mr. Honda. I'm almost finished with this…" she smiled at the man's politeness. Kiku nodded at me, but hesitated before he turned away. As Willow thought, the groceries were put away soon enough. The girl let out a breath. All the while, Willow noticed Ludwig tapping his fingers against the countertop in impatience. Deciding it would be nice to leave the older men to their business, she snuck upstairs.

The moment she passed through her door, she collapsed onto her bed. It hasn't even been a few hours since she lay there, bored out of her mind, and now she's exhausted. Who knew Gilbert could drain all the energy from you- oh, no, wait, Ludwig probably knew that well. You should see his face when his brother opens his mouth. She finds it hilarious.

Then she thought about the familiarity of the scene downstairs… Maybe they reminded her of characters from one of the manga or anime she follows… She sat up and went over to the cream-colored bookcase that sat comfortably against the wall. Her eyes scanned through the titles of manga and anime alike before it hit her. Pulling out _Hetalia- Axis Powers_ from her shelf, she studied the cover.

"Oh… T-The… what?!" she dropped it on the white carpet underneath me. This was way too weird to believe, it's like a fanfiction. A sick, twisted fanfiction that likes to pick on the OC and make their life get worse then better then worse again. Her hands bunched up in her ebony hair as she softly squealed, whether it was in horror or excitement, she didn't know.

With this discovery, she scrambled back to her feet and tried her best to sneak back downstairs. They must have noticed she left the kitchen already. That was good for her, seeing as Willow needed proof that it wasn't just an overreaction. She could hear voices in the living room as her feet touched the last stair.

"-take her with you to the world meeting? Wouldn't she just be better off here, Germany-san?" Willow heard Kiku ask.Oh, she was right… Or maybe she's hallucinating… "She might figure out what we are…"

"Well, I can't leave her all alone with bruder. Plus, we can make some excuse about the military. It's nothing to worry about,"

"Hey! I am perfectly capable of taking care of someone! I raised you didn't I? West, you can trust us for a week at least."

"Ve~ I think big brother Prussia's right! She seems responsible enough to make sure Prussia doesn't burn the house down~"

"Hai, Germany-san, I think it'd be in your best interests to leave her and Prussia-san here. If anything happens this time, the next meeting we go to, you can take her."

"Fine... You win. We'll leave Willow here with East."

The conversation seemed to be over with sentence as she hear the squeak of a person getting off the couch. I panicked and scrambled up the stairs as quietly as I could before pretending to walk down. They all looked at me as they walked out to see me walking down. Ludwig tensed a little, as did Gilbert- both probably thinking I heard them. The other two looked perfectly fine.

"What's going on?" she asked in the most innocent way she could conjure. The Beilschmidts seemed to relax with this.

"We're going to have to go back to Europe for a few days, Willow. You'll be okay with Gilbert, ja?" Ludwig asked. She nodded.

"Yeah, I should be. Plus I'd hate to miss school… But why are you going back to Europe? You didn't leave anything did you?" she tried her best to keep feigning cluelessness, but it's just so hard to stay serious. She desperately wanted to start laughing, this was ridiculous.

"He's going to a monthly veteran program!" Gilbert burst out, "It's where they have one or two veterans from every country around the world meet up every month to promote amity with other countries!"

"Whoa, cool! I'd love to hear more about how this one goes!" she exclaimed, trying to mask the surprise she got from the excuse he made up in mere minutes. The other three looked fairly surprised also. Pfft. Looks like he really is awesome.

"I can tell you about some of the best ones," Gilbert smirked and messed up her hair. She swatted at his hand to get him away from Willow's precious hair. It was already messy enough with all its tight, black ringlets.

"Ve~ Can we have dinner now?" Feliciano said from the doorway. "I can make pasta!"

"Oh! Can I help?" Willow asked. This made Feliciano's smile widen, probably at the thought of having someone to talk about pasta to.

"Hai, I think that'd be a good idea. Ludwig-san, the flight leaves at nine and you'll need to pack…" Japan nodded his head. "We'll make dinner with Willow."

"Danke, Feliciano, Kiku. I'll be back after packing," Ludwig smiled slightly at them before walking up to his room or office space in the attic. Gilbert followed suit, but instead going to the basement- which he has claimed to be his 'awesome den'.

The next hour was spent making dinner, or at least most of it was. By the time the pasta was made, there was a flour incident. Well, you could say incident… It was more like a flour_ battle._ It started with Willow accidently flicking some flour onto his shirt. He flicked some back, then she threw some back, and it kind of escalated from there. It was pretty fun until Ludwig came in. He might have had a mini heart attack or ulcer or something, because his face looked dreadfully horrifying. Once Willow told him she'll clean it all up by the time he leaves, his anger alleviated a bit.

Dinner was served soon after she cleaned up most of the kitchen with Feliciano. They all sat down in the dining room. On the dark wood surface of the table sat a large bowl of pasta and some wurst they cooked. Can she say that homemade pasta is the absolute best? Because it is, Willow can swear by it. When they finished dinner, it was around seven thirty PM.

"You all might want to head out now. You're plane leaves in, like, an hour I think and it takes about an hour to get there from here…" she advised them, not sure if they were aware of the fact. They all headed out after that, leaving her and Gilbert alone in the big house. She quickly went about making sure all the windows and doors were locked. It was a bit of a habit since a few months ago. Gilbert watched on with amusement, knowing he already did that while Willow was participating in a flour fight.

At eleven fifteen, she was rubbing her eyes and staring at her computer screen. Willow was waiting for the last of the photographs she took during the day to finish uploading. She's not creepy! She just likes to preserve memories with images. Admittedly, her memory isn't the best… A small red light blinked on the screen. She shut the laptop, satisfied, and crawled under my bed sheets, mentally preparing for a long week of school and dealing with Gilbert's antics.

Life was getting better.

**A/N: Hope you guys liked it! It's not my best work as of yet, but I'm trying to improve! Oh, and there are no pairings as of yet, but requests are always welcome (though they may not be accepted due to plot stuff)! Just remember first come, first serve! **

**Did you know p.m. means postmeridium? Totally murdered the spelling of this, but ever wonder the meaning behind the abbreviation? There you go! It's some Latin that exists in modern day! :D Yay! Who said Latin was dead?! **

**After Edit: For those of you who've read this chapter before, I thought this way was much better than the first one!**


	3. Chapter 2

**-Gilbert—**

If he had known how impossible it was to get Willow to wake up today, he would have brought a bucket full of ice water. It had been about five days since his brother left and not once was Willow sleeping like the dead. Poking his god-daughter's cheek once again, he sighed. She wouldn't even respond to his self-proclaimed awesomeness.

"WILL. WILLOW. WILLOW. GET UP, FRAU!" he screamed in her ear, causing the previously unresponsive girl to turn away from him.

"…. Go away, Jo… Tell mom I'm sleeping…" she mumbled in her sleep. The 'Prussian' raised an eyebrow at this. Did she think he was her little brother? A sad smile reached his face. He knew that he himself occasionally slips with names, sometimes calling Ludwig Germania or Holy Rome. Of course, his brother has no idea who Holy Rome was but whatever. It's not his fault he looks like them (or secretly is HRE *cough cough*).

"Nope, now get up," he stood, pulling her off the bed. Willow fell in a heap of flaying limbs and her white blanket. Ticks of a clock's hands filled the silence from the hall where the grandfather clock sat in all its ancient glory. Then there came a burst of strange noise. Willow glared at the albino man as he wheezed out air through his teeth in an odd sort of laughter.

"I hate you," she hissed vehemently. Although she wasn't truly angry, Willow happened to be one of those people that couldn't function in the mornings. But unlike others in the night owl variety, she didn't go to caffeine from the get-go. She preferred to start out the morning with a healthy dose of madness.

Gilbert, who didn't care about the dark chill in the room, pulled her to a standing position. With no hesitation, he left the room with an air of confidence about him. Willow couldn't just go back to sleep when the stunning Gilbert woke her up. No chance at all.

That was what he thought as he paraded around the kitchen, a bright pink apron tied haphazardly around his waist and a spatula held in one hand. Then the grains of sand passed and it had been five, ten, twenty, eventually close to forty five minutes. And still no sign of Willow.

Around that time, Gilbert came to the realization that the girl had once again fell prey to that of Morpheus' embrace. Marching up to her room, he spotted Willow's form curled up underneath the blankets. Her breaths nudged their way past her lips, sweet and long. For a second, he lost his nerve to wake the child- she looked so innocent and unmarked by sorrow in sleep—but Gilbert steeled his resolution and pulled back her covers with a sharp tug.

"Mmmn… Ah?" the sleepy girl sat up; narrowing her hazy eyes in response to the light pouring in through the doorway. "What is it..?"

"You have about fifteen minutes before we need to leave," Gilbert said rather plainly. Willow looked quite the opposite with panic set on her face. Fifteen minutes was not enough time at all. She still had to brush her teeth and hair, wash her face, eat breakfast, get dressed, et cetera.

"Why didn't you wake me sooner?!" Willow yelled as she sprinted out of the room and rushed about her morning rituals. The Prussian looked after her exasperated. That was all it took to get a teenage girl out of bed? He threw his arms up in defeat. Trying to understand what goes on in girls' heads was hopeless. He should have learned that with Hungary and her antics.

Loud bangs and childish cursing came from Willow's room as she hopped about, trying to get her last shoe on while brushing her teeth. It was quite an amusing sight, one hand being used to hold the brush in her mouth and the other pulling a dirty white trainer on her uplifted leg in front of her. She hopped into the bathroom to finish up her routine. The moment the water shut off, Gilbert could hear his god-daughter scampering across the hall, into her room, then back into the hallway.

Running down the stairs, Willow jumped down the last four stairs and landed on her bum. Gilbert was standing there, looking on at her in amusement.

"You done now?" he asked her. The girl didn't respond but instead had wide, blinking eyes and a blank look on her face. After a moment, she smiled sheepishly up at Gilbert.

"Yep, I'm good now. You're taking me to school again, right?" she asked him hopefully. Her response was a pale hand being offered to her. Willow cheered, pulling herself up off the ground.

Briiiing. Briiiing. Briiiing. The phone was ringing loudly from the parlor and Gilbert rushed over to grab the sleek black handle.

Then silence engulfed the room like a black hole pulling in any organic matter.

There were no words for the situation. None. It was like the world hit the brakes with such a force Gilbert was thrown for a loop. The phone fell from his hand, recoiling as it floundered around on the cord. A voice came from the mouthpiece, loud and clear.

"Hello? Mr. Beilschmidt, are you there? I know that this is shocking, but it's of great importance that you stay calm… We're doing everything we can to get into the school and rescue the hostages…."

He couldn't take it anymore and slammed the phone into the holder once again. An anger long forgotten surged and pulsed through his veins. This had to be some sick joke. There was no way in hell that Willow's school, out of so many, was being held hostage under the gun of some deranged lunatic.

Clatters sounded as he grabbed his keys. Like hell Gilbert would be staying home when he heard this. Even if it was a prank, or even a misunderstanding, absolutely no one is allowed to endanger his family. Rage fueled him to yank open his car door and speed over to Gregory High School.

To his surprise, flashing lights painted the front of school with brilliant reds and blues. A crude magnified voice screamed at the building, surrounded by armed forces and students. Gilbert's heart dropped into despair as he scanned through the hundreds of faces. Not one of them was female, let alone Willow's.

Hours later, one could find Gilbert sitting forlorn in the sitting room of the Beilshmidt home. He cradled his head in one hand and a glass of liquid amber in the other. The hostiles within the school started to release girls just after he got there. But only half of them were alive at the time.

The first girl was the one he could remember with the most clarity. Her blonde hair was stained a thick, goopy brown from dried blood and tear tracks lined her face. The only thing was that she was being pulled by another sobbing girl. The first girl was dead…. And every girl alive was paired with a dead body. Willow was not among those who left. After that, the police sent everyone away and stormed the school to find the hostiles, but the alleged men were nowhere to be seen.

Tilting his head back, he downed his drink. A rough burn weaved its way down his throat with the alcohol. It did not help one bit. He knew that until Willow was back there was no way he'd enjoy the feel of the substance or anything for that matter. Not until he knew she was alive and well.

All too suddenly his silence was broken by talking and the sound of a door opening. His brother was back early. And had no idea what just happened. Gilbert continued to sit in silence. Better than anything he knew Ludwig would have a fit, if not kill him.

"Gilbert?" a voice came from the doorway. There, standing tall, was Ludwig with Feliciano and Kiku. His face was concerned as his eyes scanned over his brother. "What the hell happened?"

"Today is a day to regret, to loathe," Gilbert said quietly. Absolute silence followed. Ludwig's lips turned down in suspicion in near unison as Kiku's. Feliciano, however, ignored the ominous sound of his tone and broke the silence.

"But it's just a Thursday, big brother Prussia," he said, his head tilting to the side in confusion.

"Yeah, Ita, it's Thursday… But Willow was taken away! And I have no idea why or where!" Gilbert shouted, standing up in a fit of rage. His glass was thrown at the wall in frustration. It shattered into millions of tiny shards. This time a heavy cloud settled upon their shoulders and stayed there. Willow was gone. Kidnapped. The disparity of the situation dawned on them. Not even Feliciano said a word.

The cauldron was stirred; its contents bubbling as if possessed by the Furies. Whatever the brew was, it would give birth to a monster not seen for years. The people that kindled the fire were not to be pleased by their creation. No, it will be quite the opposite.


End file.
